Dr. Reid also, in his “Intellectual Powers of Man,” says—“That taste, which we may call rational, is that part of our constitution by which we are made to receive pleasure from the contemplation of what we conceive to be excellent in its kind, the pleasure being annexed to this judgment, and regulated by it. This taste may be true or false, according as it is founded on a true or false judgment. And if it may be true or false, it must have first principles.” M. Victor Cousin’s opinion upon this subject is, however, still more conclusive. He observes—“If the idea of the beautiful is not absolute, like the idea of the true—if it is nothing more than the expression of individual sentiment, the rebound of a changing sensation, or the result of each person’s fancy—then the discussions on the fine arts waver without support, and will never end. For a theory of the fine arts to be possible, there must be something absolute in beauty, just as there must be something absolute in the idea of goodness, to render morals a possible science.” The basis of the science of beauty must thus be founded upon fixed principles, and when these principles are evolved with the same care which has characterised the labours of investigators in natural science, and are applied in the fine arts as the natural sciences have been in the useful arts, a solid foundation will be laid, not only for correct practice, but also for a just appreciation of productions in every branch of the arts of design. We know that the mind receives pleasure through the sense of hearing, not only from the music of nature, but from the euphony of prosaic composition, the rhythm of poetic measure, the artistic composition of successive harmony in simple melody, and the combined harmony of counterpoint in the more complex works of that art. We know, also, that the mind is similarly gratified through the sense of seeing, not only by the visible beauties of nature, but by those of art, whether in symmetrical or picturesque compositions of forms, or in harmonious arrangements of gay or sombre colouring.